Difference between revisions of "Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men"

Revision as of 14:12, 12 January 2022

Everywhere in the world women live longer than men - but this was not always the case. The available data from rich countries shows that women didn't live longer than men in the 19th century. What is the reason women live longer than men and why have these advantages gotten bigger over time? The evidence isn't conclusive and we're left with only incomplete answers. While we are aware that there are behavioral, biological and environmental variables that all play a role in women's longevity more than males, we aren't sure what percentage each factor plays in.

In spite of how much number of pounds, we know that at least part of the reason why women live longer than men do today but not previously, has to do with the fact that some key non-biological factors have changed. What are the factors that are changing? Some are well known and relatively straightforward, like the fact that men smoke more often. There are others that are more intricate. For example, there is evidence that in rich countries the female advantage increased in part because infectious diseases used to affect women disproportionately a century ago, so advances in medicine that reduced the long-term health burden from infectious diseases, especially for survivors, ended up raising women's longevity disproportionately.

Everywhere in the world women tend to live longer than men
The first chart below shows life expectancy at birth for men and women. We can see that every country is above the diagonal line of parity. This implies that a baby girl from every country could be expected to live for longer than her older brother.

This chart is interesting in that it shows that while the female advantage is present everywhere, global differences are significant. In Russia women live 10 years longer than men, while in Bhutan the gap is just half each year.

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In the richer countries, the advantage of women in longevity was smaller
Let's now look at how the advantage of women in longevity has changed over time. The following chart shows the male and female lifespans when they were born in the US over the period 1790-2014. Two distinct features stand out.

The first is that there is an upward trend. and women in the US live much, much longer than they did a century ago. This is in line with historical increases in life expectancy everywhere in the world.

And second, there is a widening gap: The female advantage in life expectancy used be quite small, كيفية ممارسة العلاقة الزوجية فى الاسلام (visit this backlink) but it grew substantially over the last century.

You can verify that these principles are also applicable to other countries with data by clicking the "Change country" option in the chart. This includes the UK, France, and Sweden.